Versace Eros

Eros arrived in 2012, named for the Greek god of love, with a Medusa-stamped bottle in a shade of blue nobody could miss. Versace's own material ties it to a heroic, almost mythological idea of masculinity, and Donatella Versace has spoken publicly about envisioning a man close to a Greek god when the brief was set. Whatever you make of that, the fragrance did what it set out to do: it became one of the defining men's scents of the 2010s and one of the most recognised in the world. It is commonly attributed to Aurelien Guichard, who comes from a Grasse perfumery family and whose father Jean Guichard also worked at the top of the industry. The version Versace publishes today lists Italian lemon and mandarin, mint oil and candied apple at the top; geranium flower, clary sage essence and AmberMax in the heart; and Atlas and Virginia cedarwood, vetiver and patchouli essences, sandalwood and vanilla in the base. The pyramid widely circulated at launch is close but not identical, listing green apple rather than candied apple and tonka rather than clary sage, and that gap is a fair indication that the formula has been adjusted over more than a decade. What has not changed is the shape. It opens ice-cold, mint and apple hitting like a mouthful of something sharp, and then converts within twenty minutes into a warm, glassy vanilla-and-wood accord that is sweet without becoming a dessert. The tension between the freezing top and the syrupy base is the entire trick, and it is executed well. It is a going-out fragrance, unashamedly. Clubs, dates, summer nights. On a warm Johannesburg evening it performs exactly as designed. In an office it is usually too much, and in daytime heat the sweetness can amplify quickly, so one or two sprays is the sensible ceiling. Performance is a genuine strength: eight to ten hours from the eau de toilette and strong projection through the first three, with clothing holding it far longer. Two things to know before buying. It is extremely widely worn, so it is a familiar smell rather than a distinctive one. And Versace has built a large family around it, including separate eau de parfum and parfum versions that are noticeably different rather than simply stronger, so check the exact concentration on the box.